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History of Negav
Negav was settled as a small trading community by neko settlers in 1998 B.U, although the name Negav wouldn't appear until 1736 A.U during the reign of Kind Tohno. Lacking the manpower and infrastructure to defend itself, they paid tribute to the powerful Dridder Empire in exchange for protection. This alliance allowed the settlement to prosper in relative peace, until 1664 B.U, when the peace treaty between the Sagolians and Dridder was signed, turning Negav into a neutral trading area. With the protection of two mighty empires, the future certainly looked bright for this small community, and expansion was the logical course of action. Soon, the little village grew into an oasis for lost travelers, offering them a shelter where they would be safe from predation. Discovery of Ascarlin and the Second Motamo War In 1038 B.U, Heric Rohir, a renowned neko explorer and cartographer, set off on an expedition to chart the western mountains. There, they discovered a deposit of Ascarlin, a then newly discovered precious gemstone. Once news that the mountains were rich in minerals reached Negav, they immediately and discreetly built a complex mining system. The labor was back-breaking and the route to the mines fraught with danger, but the risks paid of, as the resulting boom in trades allowed Negav to expand immensely within only a few decades. However, word of this new resource eventually reached both the Sagolian and Dridder empire, and both vied for control of the mines. The two empires came to blows in a conflict known as the Second Motamo War. It ended after only three short years with no side the victor. Negav itself was caught in the crossfire and teetered on the brink of destruction. A peace treaty was therefore signed and Negav agreed to pay a tribute of ascarlin to both the Sagolian and Dridder empire for continued protection. Things became quiet for the next centuries until the Fall of Ur-Sagol. The Mad Queen War In 99 A.U, nekos and humans from all over the Motamo region banded together to fortify Negav, as they feared that Sineria, the ruler of the Dridder Empire, may soon turn her sights on them. Fortunately for them, Sineria's forces were busy fighting against the neighboring naga tribes, giving the Negavians plenty of time to bolster their forces. Three years later, their greatest fear became reality: Queen Sineria declared all past alliances with nekos and humans void, and that they are to be treated as ordinary prey. Come the year 143, after crushing all resisting naga tribes and a few rebel factions within the empire, the mad queen at long last shifts her gaze toward Negav. She publicly declares the Motamo region dridder territory and openly expresses her desire to nap and feast in the middle of the settlement that had so long eluded her grasp. Any opposition would be a declaration of war and met with the full might of the empire's army. Knowing of her treacherous nature, the people of Negav remained steadfast and refused to surrender. Then, two years later, a legion of insects mysteriously descended from the heavens. It was said that they completely blanketed the ground and blotted out both sun and skies. The terrified and bewildered masses watched in awe as the swarm completely ignored Negav and instead headed directly to Supprozad, the capital of the Dridder Empire. After years of waiting for Empress Sineria's threats to pass, a collective sigh of joy and respite echoed throughout all of Negav as news of the empire's demise reached their ears. King Kerume's Reign In 737, a neko by the name of Manox Kerume crowns himself the first official King of Negav and ruler over a small confederacy of tribes settled around the Motamo river. Opposition to him was however fierce, as Kerume was not only not of Felaryan descent, but had also arrived only a few years prior. In 746, as nagas were reclaiming the territories they lost during the era of the Dridder Empire and were seeking to expand their own territories more aggressively than ever, King Kerume ordered a complex network of tunnels to be dug under Negav. Then, in an extraordinarily bold, and some might even say foolhardy move, King Kerume privately met with Chani, the leader of a neighboring giant naga tribe in 769. No record speaks of what exactly happened during their meeting, other than predation from nagas diminished significantly shortly afterward. King Kerume was seen as a hero by many, but others came to resent him further for making a deal with a heartless, man-eating monster. One Hundred Years of Nightmares In 1261, Darkness Elementals suddenly started to swarm out of the Evernight Forest. An era of great insecurity and terror began, where people walking in the dark would suddenly vanish without a trace. Survivors of elven villages that had been wiped out by the darkness soon reached Negav where they hoped to find refuge. With them, they carried grim tales of a colossal Darkness Elemental, whom their people called Queen Déméchrelle. She was said to be at the very center of the darkness itself, commanding the ever growing legions of elementals and wandering nightmares. Then, reports of her wandering about in the north region soon followed, as well as tales about how she feasted on every living creature she came across, from beasts, to humans, to elves, to even giant nagas. This grisly tale sparked the period of intense fear and paranoia known as the One Hundred Years of Nightmares. As the darkness continued to expand, King Kerume and Chani gathered all best neko and naga shamans under their command in 1341 in a joint effort to stop the darkness from engulfing the Motamo region. This long siege went on for years, where Negavians would hardly sleep at night. Their city was never really struck though, and in 1363 the darkness started to recede as suddenly as it expanded, and all sightings of Déméchrelle disappeared. Though they were seen as successful in saving their homes from certain annihilation, resentment toward King Kerume only grew as his friendship with Chani deepened. King Tatal's Reign Tensions between nekos and King Kerume continued to increase until 1427, when King Kerume was assassinated in a coup. Gewaz Tatal, the leader of the rebel force, then crowned himself the second King of Negav. However, tensions showed no signs of abating. Those who supported King Kerume opposed Tatal ferociously for putting an end to a period of relative peace and prosperity, calling him a usurper. Worse, a vengeful and grieving Chani was frequently sighted rampaging around the region, ravaging any neko settlement and devouring its inhabitants to the last. Compounding these issues, humans living in Negav grew uneasy, as many of the new king's policies were targeting them specifically. In 1465, Tatal is deposed in a coup. Though he escaped with his life, he left the throne vacant and without an heir. Upon hearing that her friend's murderer had been dethroned at last, Chani ceased her rampages. She then left the region and was never seen or heard from again. After a long and heated dispute over inheritance of the throne, Mazdam Tohno, a chancellor who had once served King Kerume, is then crowned the third King of Negav. King Tohno's Reign In 1736, King Tohno ordered a massive wall of stones to be built around the city's perimeter. The most skilled of earthshapers in all the realm were all gathered in one place. They toiled day and night tirelessly, until months later, when the Great Wall of Negav was finally complete. King Tohno was confident that the Great Wall of Negav would prove an insurmountable bulwark and a symbol of Negav's might against any giant monster prowling the region. In 1757, his claim would be tested when a large group of marauding giant centaurs attacked the city. Though the assault was fierce and casualties numbered in the hundreds, the Great Wall proved too resilient to breach and offered key strategic positioning for the city garrison to fight back on relatively equal terms. The centaurs attempted to mount a siege, but with the region almost stripped bare of preys during their previous raids, they soon retreated for easier quarries. News of this incredible feat reached other, smaller settlements across neighboring regions. Humans, nekos, elves, and even small nagas, dridders and harpies began looking at Negav as a safe haven, much like the Sagolian Empire of legends. Many migrated over to the city to begin new lives there. The Negav Civil War Alas, come 1779, tensions once more rose between humans and nekos. Humans began rioting in the streets, demanding more rights and more representation. Elves, on the other hand, remained neutral, and openly criticized the rash actions of both humans and nekos. In a bold move, Prince Makem, the son of King Tohno, met with the protesters personally, bringing with him no weapon and none of his personal guard. He tried to negotiate with the leader of the rioting humans, hoping to come to an agreement through diplomacy. Things seemed to looking up, until Makem was critically wounded by an arrow from a human assassin. Outraged, King Tohno ordered the garrison to impose a severe crackdown on all present and future protests. Clashes intensified and threatened to descend into a full-blown civil war. The king's advisors pleaded for a truce, as the infighting were pulling guards away from the Great Wall, a prospect that would spell certain disaster. King Tohno reluctantly agreed, and in 1784, ordered the crackdown to be suspended. Despite this, tensions remained high and skirmishes between humans and the neko garrison continued to occur sporadically. During this tense period, a small group of powerful mages took up quarters in Negav and discreetly opened a small magic school in 1798. They were headed by a man named Fergo Thelandros and they called themselves the Ps'isol mages. The Great Destruction In 1836, the largest human riot in Negav's recorded history suddenly erupted in the streets. This time, King Tohno had had enough, and ordered the entire city garrison to take up arms, including most soldiers stationed at the Great Wall, and crush the human rebellion once and for all. King Tohno's advisor begged him to cease the fighting and give the humans what they wanted, but he refused to listen, and even arrested some of them for treason. A bloody war ensued, fought in the streets of negav, while its walls remained almost vacant. Then, in 1837, the Great Destruction happened. On this ill-fated day, a group of giant nagas approached Negav and noticed how neither a single guard, nor lookout was stationed at the Great Wall. Surprised to not be fired upon, the nagas seized the opportunity and began climbing the sides of the wall. Everyone inside was caught completely flat-footed and mass panic swept across every corner of the city. The nagas scooped up the forces fighting closest to the wall and greedily stuffed them in their mouths before swallowing them alive. News that the city had been breached soon reached every other nearby predators, who spontaneously all flocked toward the city to partake in on the feast. The mighty Great Wall of Negav soon collapsed under the giant army's relentless assault. For three days on end, giant nagas, dridders, harpies, centaurs and sphinxes rampaged through the street. Houses and infrastructures were torn apart as the giants searched every square inch of the city for prey. Any unfortunate man, woman or child who failed to escape was eaten alive on the spot. The city garrison fell into disarray and were devoured almost to the last. Some tried in vain to protect civilians, but most fell in a panic trying to save their own hide. King Tohno, his Queen and Prince Makem were reportedly eaten in their own palace. Some of the giants became consumed by their greed and gluttony, and began fighting one another, killing countless civilians and reducing buildings to rubble. The only salvation for the Negavians were the underground tunnels built during King Kerume's reign and the giants' bloated stomachs reaching their maximum capacity. After three days and three nights, the giants ceased their attacks and left Negav to look for more prey elsewhere. The city was left in ruins, a ghastly mirror image of the Ruins of Ur-Sagol. The Great Wall of Negav, the once proud symbol of the city, was now nothing more than dust, gravel and shattered stones. To this day, the Great Destruction is still widely remembered as the darkest day in the history of Negav. However some historians dispute that claim. They think the event of the Great Destruction have been exaggerated and dramatized over the years. According to them, Negav has actually seen similar disasters throughout its long and turbulent history and while this one was a terrible catastrophe, it didn't threatened Negav's very existence. The Great Destruction, they point, occurred at a time where Negav thought itself so powerful and secure that it had nothing to fear from the outside world any more. Thus, the tragedy was even more traumatizing to the people because it brutally shattered that perception. Those historians also think that the Ps'isol Magiocrats, the current rulers of Negav love that narrative as it reminds everyone the fate that would soon befall Negav without the Isolon eye to protect it from predators. This is why schools in Negav go to great length to teach and describe the terrible tragedy in its grimiest details to their students and with probably inflated numbers of casualties in order to keep people scared enough to not question the magiocrat rule. Rise of the Ps'isol Rule Although the Great Destruction lasted only three days, the survivors remained hidden underground, too shell-shocked to head back to the surface, save to search for food. They established their own little community, which would eventually become the Slums of Negav. They continued to remain idle, until 1840, when the Ps'isol Mages decided it was time to take matters into their own hands. They gathered any able-bodied man and woman, and headed back to the surface to begin Negav's reconstruction. The Ps'isol Mages were met with only meager opposition, as most of the survivors were still too shocked by the catastrophe too question their leadership. Come 1851, as the reconstruction was beginning to make some tangible headway, a race of humans possessing advanced technology arrived in Felarya. They called themselves Vishmitals and offered the Ps'isol Mages their services to defend Negav and help in the reconstruction. The Ps'isol Mages were at first hesitant to receive their aid, suspecting ulterior motives, but given the city lacked manpower, nevertheless agreed to their services. Their first order of business was to erect a new Great Wall, bigger, sturdier, and equipped with better defenses. As decades passed by, the Ps'isol Mages steadily grew in power, their great magic earning the respect of the Negavians. Then, in 1893, the city was at last completely rebuilt. The Ps'isol Mages unveiled their latest creation: the Isolon eye. This marvel of magic could keep away any giant monster or predator from ever coming close and offered complete protection to the city, or so they claimed at least. The Negavians were at first incredulous, but soon realized the power of the eye was genuine. They lauded the Ps'isol Mages as heroes. Two years later, they officially declared themselves the new rulers of Negav, something that was almost unilaterally accepted by the Negavians since they had already been in charge for decades, and established the Magiocracy. The Ps'isol Mages renamed themselves the Ps'isol Council. Reclaiming the Ascarlin Mines Over the following years, the newly established Ps'isol Council turned their eyes over to the Ascarlin Mines. A colony of giant Rock Harpies had migrated over to the Ascarlin Mountains and promptly took the mines, devouring anyone who trespassed in their territory. It was clear that until they reclaimed the mines, Negav would remain a shadow of its former glory. An assault looked suicidal however. Only the most talented of mages, after undergoing years of intense training, could stand a chance against the giant harpies. But too many of them would be needed against a whole colony or they would be decimated almost immediately. The Ps'isol mages then turned over to their allies, the Vishmitals. Their advanced weapons could be mastered by just about anyone in the fraction of the time one would take to master high level magic. Their weaponry alone would not be enough to conquer the might rock harpies though. Thus, the Ps'isol Council and the Vishmitals decided to combine their armed forces into a single battalion, one comprised not only of Vishmital soldiers and the Council's elite Battlemages, but also weapons born of the Vishmitals' science and the Ps'isol Mages' wizardry. In 1925, this new military force was officially unveiled to the public. Its name: the Isolon Fist. Under the leadership of now retired General Novan, their first mission was to repel the nearby rock harpy colony from the Ascarlin Mountains' south-eastern, recapture and secure the main route to the mines, and exterminate any beast nesting inside. The raid on the mines was grueling. Thousands of brave souls lost their lives during the assault on mines, either swallowed alive by harpies, torn to shreds by beasts, or crushed under landslides. Several months had passed and news finally reached Negav: the operation was a success. The news that the mines were under their control once more resounded throughout all of Negav. The Isolon Fist become an inspiration among Negavians, many figures becoming legendary war heroes. With the mines back under control and the protection of the Eye, Negav began expanding at a blistering rate. With the resounding success of the Isolon Fist, science and magic slowly and steadily became deeply intertwined throughout the city, marking the beginning of the age of magitechnology. Founding of Motamo Docks and the Nekomuran Exodus All was not well though. In 1941, the Ps'isol Council signed laws that forbade small predator species such as nagas, dridders and harpies from owning and renting property, or housing inside the city. For many, this was a dagger to the back. For nearly two hundred years, the city had provided them a shelter against their giant ravenous cousins, and now they were being arbitrarily kicked out. However, many survivors of the Great Destruction actively spoke out against the small non-human races, how they were no different from their giant, monstrous cousins. Disgusted, nagas, dridders and harpies left the city in droves and founded their own little, Motamo Docks, by the river bank. A few years later, tensions between humans and nekos rose yet again. Nekos complained about the rapid changing of demographics and how they were treated as second class citizens, with new laws being passed targeting them and lacking true representation. Humans still blamed nekos for being responsible for the Great Destruction and many thought it was only justice for the calamity they caused. Elves criticized both sides and received ire from both humans and nekos for never taking action to prevent the catastrophe. After centuries of fighting, the nekos had had enough. In 1953, the majority of the neko population begin a mass exodus, allegedly "encouraged" by the Council, and founded their own village, Nekomura, just north of the Ascarlin Mountains. They were offered to live alongside the inhabitants of Motamo Docks, but declined. The nekos believed that they wouldn't be free of Negav's prejudices unless they settled far away from the city. Plus, they too were uneasy with the idea of living with small predators. Under the Mancala accord, the Ps'isol Mages provided Nekomura with a smaller Isolon Eye for protection. However, Nekomura soon discovered that their Isolon Eye was a weak copy and had to be periodically recharged, which they must pay for with a tribute of food and supplies. This felony only served to deepen the longstanding resentment between the two races, both inside and outside the two settlements. The Ps'isol – Vishmital Cold War Things became peaceful again, until 1977, when tensions between the Council and the Vishmitals began to increase over supreme leadership of the Isolon Fist. The Isolon Fist was then splintered into two forces, the majority of the foot soldiers remaining loyal to the Vishmitals, and the battlemages continuing to swear allegiance to the Council. The two factions didn't engage directly until 1988, when open skirmishes between Vishmital soldiers and the Ps'isols' elite Battlemages began rocking the city streets. Tensions quickly escalated to an all time high despite efforts by representatives of both parties to cool things down. They eventually succeeded, reminding them not to repeat the same mistakes that caused the Great Destruction, but the rift between the Council and the Vishmitals remained huge. In 1990, a Vishmital commander mysteriously vanished. After a lengthy investigation, they caught the culprit, a Nemesis, who confessed that she ate the commander in his sleep. Though she never officially revealed whose side she was on, the Vishmitals presumed her an assassin hired by the Council. This sparked a new round of violence between the Vishmitals and the Council, and the cold war between the two factions threatened to become hot. However, a significant part of the battle was fought far from Negav, in the Great rocky fields at a remote Vishmital outpost. The base is said to have served as a research facility for the Vishmital to develop a secret weapon or something that would give them a decisive advantage over the Ps'isol mages. Some theories suggest the Vishmitals were constructing their own version of the Isolon eye to replace the Magiocrats'one and allow their ousting. Accounts of what exactly happened at the outpost remain mysterious but the base was ultimately attacked by Storm Sprites, one of the deadliest threat in Felarya for any technologically advanced structure. In just a few days it was entirely taken over by the fairies, a large number of Vishmital soldiers were eaten and whatever was being built, was now out of Vishmital's reach for the foreseeable future. The Ps'isol mages denied any involvement in the incident but it was hard for Vishmitals to not be at least a little suspicious of the timing of the attack. In the end this setback dealt a huge blow to the Vishmitals' campaign in Negav, who then immediately began negotiating a truce and a new power-sharing accord with the Ps'isol Council. The Council agreed to give the Vishmitals full authority over all matters concerning the military once more, but on the condition that the Council remained the supreme commanders of the Isolon Fist and retained veto power over their decisions. The Vishmitals begrudgingly accepted, ending the cold war between Negav's two leading factions. *credits to Shady-knight for writing the entry.